


With a Talent Like Yours

by cleflink



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Archery, Fantasy, M/M, Magic, Podfic Available, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-27
Updated: 2012-07-27
Packaged: 2017-11-10 20:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/470167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleflink/pseuds/cleflink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jensen figured that traveling with a wizard would be a lot easier if the man's damn familiar didn't hate him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With a Talent Like Yours

**Author's Note:**

> Written for peppervl on the wonderful occasion of her birthday. Happy You Day, hon! Also, the working title of this story was Dungeons and Cats. Fair warning.
> 
> [oddishly](http://oddishly.livejournal.com) has done a [podfic](http://oddishly.livejournal.com/119109.html) of this story!

Jared’s cat hated Jensen.

"No, she doesn’t," Jared said absently, most of his attention on the spell book in his lap. Even after two years gallivanting around the country with him, Jensen still wondered how someone as spastically exuberant as Jared ever managed to sit still long enough to be a proper wizard.

"Yes, she does." Jensen darted a narrow look at the smooth patch of sunlight where Shilya was curled up in a sleepy little ball of evil cat. "She growls at me."

"So?" Jared turned the page, his bangs falling in his eyes. "She growls at trees."

"Have you even _noticed_ the way she glares at me?"

"She's a cat," Jared said, as though that explained everything. "It's what they do."

Shilya chose that moment to lift her head, fixing Jensen with a baleful tilt of wide green eyes. Jensen looked away, refusing to get caught having a staring contest with a cat.

He made a face at Jared instead. "She tried to claw my arm off the last time we bought supplies from Jeff."

"Geez Jensen, haven't you ever heard of playing? You might have seen other kids doing it while you were busy sitting around being antisocial." 

Jensen crossed his arms over his chest. "Aren’t you the least bit worried that your familiar has a vendetta against me?"

"No," said Jared, with a roll of his eyes. "Because she doesn’t. It’s not Shilya’s fault you’re grumpy and paranoid."

"I am not," Jensen said, more petulantly than he would have liked.

Jared glanced up from his book. "Jensen," he said, in the fondly amused tone that meant he was totally making fun of Jensen. 

"I hate you," Jensen told him. "I'm going to shoot you and dump your body in the river."

"We’re nowhere near a river."

"Then I'll leave you for the animals. No one will ever know."

"No you won’t," Jared said, supremely self-confident. "You _like_ us too much."

Jensen raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you delusional?"

"Oh, come on, Jensen." Jared set his book aside and slung an arm around Jensen's shoulders in an awkward half-hug. "You know you’d be a lonely bastard without us."

"Ecstatically happy bastard," Jensen corrected him, because it wouldn’t do to start agreeing with Jared just because he was right.

Jared just grinned and pulled him closer until Jensen's cheek was smushed right up against Jared's shoulder. It didn't feel bad, Jensen could admit to himself, though he’d die before telling Jared so. The heat of Jared's skin soaked into him right through the thin, sturdy fabric of his robe and lit up a contented little pulse of warmth in his chest that Jensen was all too happy to ignore. 

Jared’s fingers rubbed absently over the bare skin of Jensen’s arm, apparently content to stay right where they were. Jensen was vaguely toying with the idea of shifting closer when a piteous meow from Shilya drew their eyes down to where she was butting her head insistently against Jared’s leg.

Jared laughed. "You want in on the cuddles too, huh?" He let go of Jensen and sat back and Shilya jumped immediately into his lap. Jared stroked one big hand down Shilya’s back, rubbing under her chin with the same deft touch he'd just been using on Jensen. "Such a spoiled little familiar you are!"

Shilya stretched happily, purring up a storm. The slit-eyed look she threw Jensen’s way was really fucking smug.

Jensen clenched his jaw. "I’m going to find something for dinner," he decided, pivoting on his heel before Jared could offer to come along. He was already unslinging his bow as he stalked away from their campsite, the sudden urge to go kill something riding high in his veins.

Jared's stupid cat definitely hated him.

\---

They'd met more or less by accident. 

Jensen had been hanging around Vermuk at the time, living off the profits of an easy scouting job and half-heartedly looking for something more interesting to do. He'd been eating a solitary meal amidst the raucous chaos of the town's only tavern when the door opened on a dust-stained traveler wearing a smile on his face and a cat on his shoulder.

The cat alone would have been enough to make people give him a second look, but it was the man’s distinctive white robes that made them out and out stare. Jensen couldn’t blame them, either. Wizards weren't exactly uncommon in Yylin County, but white ones were the exception, not the rule. The fact that the guy couldn't have looked less like a wizard if he tried - tall enough that Jensen would have eaten his shirt if there wasn’t some giant in his blood and so smoothly muscled that every warrior in the room was probably suffering from a sudden, crippling bout of insecurity - didn't exactly help matters either.

The wizard offered the room an easy nod and walked on in, apparently oblivious to the eyes following his every step. He settled himself on a stool at the bar and the cat jumped neatly into his lap. One calloused hand settled on the cat's back, petting absently while its owner grinned at the bartender.

When the wizard did nothing more exciting in the following minutes than order dinner, the room diverted most of its attention elsewhere. People still darted wary glances his way every few minutes, but that was pretty much par for the course with strangers. Jensen was better at hiding his curiosity: he kept his head down and gave every indication of being completely focused on his meal, watching steadily from beneath his eyelashes all the while. 

Eventually, the wizard's food arrived and he made his way across the floor with it and plunked himself down at an empty table by the far wall. The cat hopped up on the table next to him and he gave it a look. 

"Cats aren't supposed to sit on tables," Jensen heard the wizard say, quietly enough that most of the people in the room wouldn't have been able to hear. He had a nice voice, affable and strong. "What makes you think you get special treatment?"

If the cat made any response, not even Jensen's ears could catch it. That didn't stop the wizard's smile from widening and he scrubbed one hand on the cat’s head before turning his attention to the full plate in front of him. 

The crowd bustled and swirled while Jensen watched the man eat, the noise level rising as everyone grew increasingly more drunk. The wizard dug into his food without regard for the racket, stopping every few minutes to feed a morsel or two to the cat. Jensen ordered another drink, not ready to leave just yet.

There were only a few mouthfuls left on the wizard's plate with the cat bristled suddenly, a low growl rumbling from its throat. As Jensen watched, the wizard stilled fractionally, then put down his fork with careful deliberation. 

"Evening, gentlemen," he said, turning in his seat to smile at the mismatched group of surly men standing behind him. "Something I can help you with?"

"We don't like your kind round here," the gnome in the front said, and Jensen rolled his eyes. It didn't matter where he went; drunk bigots existed in every corner of the globe.

The wizard blinked. "Cat people? Because, you know, I told her not to sit on the table."

It took the gnome a long moment to process that and Jensen smothered a grin at the scowl that spread across his face when he figured it out. "You-"

"Me," the wizard agreed.

"Fucking wizard," the elf hissed, an ugly sneer on his preternaturally pretty face. "Think you can just waltz in here?"

"Oh dear," the wizard said, sounding surprisingly genuine. "I didn't know it was an invite-only party. Sorry about that."

The cat growled again, ears slicked back and hackles raised. The wizard glanced at it.

"You're right," he said to the cat, which Jensen hoped was a sign that it was true that wizards could talk to their familiars and not just that the guy was a nutcase. "We should probably go. Thanks for coming over to say hi," he told his less than adoring fans. "But we're gonna head out. It's been a long day."

The wizard's chair scraped across the floor as he stood and Jensen watched confusion turn to anger on a half dozen faces as the wizard and his cat headed for the door. 

"Wait a minute, y-" the elf started and reached for the wizard’s arm.

The wizard side-stepped as neatly as you please and the elf went tumbling to the floor in a shocked, uncoordinated pile of limbs.

"Sorry, I’m kind of tired," the wizard said without so much as a backward glance. "Tomorrow, okay?"

He and his cat were passing near the end of Jensen's table when the elf staggered to his feet, blood on his lip and mayhem in his eyes. Light glinted off the wicked looking dagger he drew from his belt and Jensen couldn't help but tense at the sudden bloodlust in the air. The wizard started to turn, mouth opening on a spell he wouldn’t have time to say, and the elf lunged, aiming to kill.

Jensen’s mostly-empty tankard caught the elf right in the face, sending him sprawling for the second time in as many minutes. A thunderous silence spread through the tavern and Jensen didn’t so much as twitch when every head in the room swung his way. The wizard’s eyes flicked appraisingly over him as well, taking in Jensen’s forest-dark clothes, the bow slung over his shoulder, the dirt under his fingernails. Jensen figured it was as good a way to get to know him as any.

The wizard got about as far as, "Nice thr-," when a human built like a brick wall charged at him in the wake of his fallen friend. The wizard turned to meet the attack head on, a whole hell of a lot of muscles standing out in sharp relief in his back and arms as he shoved the idiot back into Jensen’s table hard enough to send the whole thing toppling over. Jensen shifted hurriedly out of the way, glad there wasn't anything left on the table to spill on him.

He raised an eyebrow at the wizard. "Really?"

"Sorry!" the wizard called back. "Didn’t have time to aim."

It was about then that the gnome and the other humans decided to get in on the fun. Somehow, Jensen found himself back to back with the wizard, participating in what had to be one of the most unbalanced bar fights in history. The wizard turned out to have a pretty mean left hook - not really a surprise, Jensen thought - and his cat was a fucking hellion, growling and slashing at anything that came close. Jensen held his own too - just because he was better with a bow didn’t mean he couldn’t handle himself in a fist fight - and it wasn’t long before their opponents were splayed out and groaning on the floor and the rest of the room was very carefully not paying attention anymore. 

As far as after-dinner entertainment went, it was pretty good fun.

"So," said the wizard, after their foes had vacated the premises and two full tankards were sitting on Jensen's righted table. "I'm Jared and this is Shilya. We're heading for the Silver Mountains to kill a rampaging golem and we need a guide. If we don't die, the reward’ll pay out 15 mina apiece. You interested?"

Jensen thought about it for all of half a second, then held out his hand. "Jensen. What kind of golem are we talking about here?"

And that was how Jensen met Jared.

\---

This time around they were treasure hunting instead of playing heroes for hire, which meant that their information was pathetic at best. It was a good thing they weren't on a schedule because they were relying more on luck and sheer stubbornness than skill to get themselves where they were going. Jensen was a damn good guide but there was only so much he could do with half of a chewed-up map and a forest that was twice the size it had been when the map was drawn. Even once he'd got them in the right area, they still spent a fortnight wandering around aimlessly before they finally tripped over the ruins they'd been looking for. 

Literally, in Jared's case.

"Seriously, man," Jensen said, shaking his head while Jared picked himself up off the ground. "You've got a _cat_ for a familiar. How are you still less graceful than a sack of potatoes?"

"Screw you," Jared said, wiping ineffectually at the dirt on his robes. "You're just grumpy because _I_ found the ruins and you didn't."

"Whatever gets you through the day, Jared. Now are you going to stop being a failure of a human being and come help me?"

Now that they'd found the place, they didn't have much trouble getting in, though this was mostly thanks to Jensen's skill at avoiding traps and Shilya's ability to cross even the most treacherous patches of floor without disturbing a thing. They'd all discovered that Jared contributed best to these sorts of challenges by staying the hell away, so he stood back a good ten paces and amused himself by conjuring a pocket-sized rainbow that could climb up the walls. Jensen didn't pretend to have the slightest idea how Jared's brain worked.

Jensen and Shilya got the doors open without getting themselves killed in the process, called Jared over and they all forged into the darkness beyond. The going was hard; the ruins sloped down a long way into the earth and were full of tumbled masonry and the sorts of crawly beasts that skulked around in the dark. 

The cheery little balls of light that Jared conjured up to make the going easier were bright enough to keep them from tripping over something and braining themselves, but also meant that there were spots swimming in front of Jensen's eyes every time he looked away. Shilya amused herself by terrorizing the local wildlife, soundless as smoke and traceable by the pained shrieks and frantic scuttling that followed wherever she went.

They spent a good two days traveling deeper into the earth and Jensen was glad of Jared's steady presence beside him, keeping him grounded amid the endless black. If he'd been the honest type, Jensen would have admitted that Jared pretty much always had that effect on him, but Jensen wasn't much of a fan of setting himself up for disappointment. It wasn't as easy to avoid the truth down here, though, when there was nothing to distract him from the way that Jared just fucking lit up Jensen's world except for Jared's stupid magic floaty light balls. Which weren't distracting even a little bit.

It was damned frustrating was what it was, and Jensen had never been happier to reach the end of a tunnel in his life.

They paused briefly at the mouth of the cavern to scuffle with a brood of somethingorothers that had taken up residence in front of the deserted shrine they'd been looking for, then headed on in to steal some stuff. Jensen handled the actual stealing part. Jared's job was to stay in the back and be ready to blast the holy hell out of anything even remotely threatening. The shrine apparently had very few hostile defenders on retainer, however, so Jared mostly just stood there while Jensen did all the work. Not an entirely unusual occurrence, but that didn't stop Jensen from bitching at Jared until Shilya dive-bombed his legs and nearly sent him sprawling into a nearby wall. Twice.

After Shilya sauntered off with a smug little meow and Jared threatened to set Jensen on fire if he killed his cat, they collected all the valuable stuff they could fit in their bags and started the long, dark journey back. Jensen kept his mind firmly fixed on mina conversions and item appraisals for the duration of the trip. 

Of course, things that looked easy were just waiting to bite you in the ass so Jensen shouldn't have been nearly as surprised as he was when a mob of goblins dropped out of the trees around them bare moments after they'd climbed out of the ruins with their bags laden with valuables.

"Lazy shits," Jensen sighed, dropping his bag and pulling a handful of arrows out of his quiver. "Couldn't go ransack the shrine themselves. Had to ambush us instead."

The closest goblin made to hurl an axe in Jensen's general direction so Jensen put an arrow through his chest, the pale fletching standing out starkly against mud-coloured fabric.

Jensen faintly registered Jared muttering under his breath and didn’t flinch when the ground started shaking violently underfoot. Masonry shuddered and a good third of the goblins ended up on their backsides, which made them easy pickings for Jensen's bow. Jared had hardly caught his breath before he launched into another spell, which was pretty fucking terrifying considering the type of high-level magic he was slinging around. 

Especially since he apparently still hadn't mastered the idea that setting enemies on fire in the middle of a fucking forest was a bad idea.

"You burn down the forest and I'm leaving you to die," Jensen told him, nocking another arrow and letting it fly at a knife-wielding goblin that was getting too close to Jared for Jensen’s comfort. A massive fireball flew past him, flash-frying another goblin before continuing on to set a patch of grass on fire. Jensen sighed.

"They're weak against it!" Jared defended, with a wizard's blatant disregard for anything even remotely resembling good sense. Jensen figured that was what happened when you spent most of your time doing crazy shit with your mind.

"So are the trees, Jared. And us."

"Worrywart." More nonsense words spilled from Jared's mouth and a sudden flurry of tree roots exploded up out of the earth. The goblin that didn't get out of the way fast enough found themselves choked to death by the clinging snarls, and Jensen and Shilya took care of the rest.

"There," Jared said, when the last of them had fallen. "Dead goblins and no lasting fire damage." 

Jensen rolled his eyes and pretended not to notice as Jared summoned up a gust of wind to snuff out a few quietly smoldering trees. "I'm so glad to hear it. You want to stick around and make sure nothing spontaneously combusts or can we go?"

"And here I thought killing things would make you chill out a little." Jared bent down to scoop up his bag from where he'd dropped it in the dirt. "Don't you ever get tired of being grumpy?"

"Nope," Jensen said and Jared made a face at him. Shilya made a disgruntled sort sound and Jensen glanced to find her staring at him with an inscrutable sort of disdainful-cat face. She cocked her head, watching him like he was a particularly stupid rat, and Jensen looked away from her too.

He grabbed his own bag and slung it over his free shoulder. "Come on. I want to get out of this damned forest before you try to set it on fire again."

\---

Despite being the only one who could actually tell north from south, Jensen generally left the task of picking their destinations to Jared. And usually Jared seemed to have a pretty good idea of where he wanted them to go; he had a knack for knowing the places they could find work, the taverns that served awesome steak pies, the bookstores that had good collections of spell books on hand. 

The rest of the time Jared seemed more like he was just wandering around for the sake of it, in no real hurry to be anywhere at all. Jensen didn't care much either way; as far as he was concerned, everywhere was better than home so Jared could wander to his heart's delight.

Right up until it got one of them mortally injured, of course. Then Jensen tended to find it more than a little irritating.

"Fucking- Jared!" Jensen put an arrow through the wolf that had just tried to eviscerate Jared and rushed towards him, careless of his bow clattering to the ground as he fell to his knees at Jared's side. "Dammit, Jared! What part of 'stay out of the fucking way' don't you understand?"

Jared didn't answer, too busy choking on his own blood and trying to hold his insides together to manage it. His white robes were stained violently red and blood was pooling on the ground beneath him at a frightening rate. Shilya rubbed worriedly against the side of Jared's head, meowing in open concern.

"I've got him," Jensen promised her, fumbling hurriedly in his pouch for the pungent mix of herbs and magic he'd taken to carrying around after the first time Jared had tried to get his fool self killed. "Not letting him leave us."

He could feel Shilya's eyes on him as he caught Jared's chin in a careful grip and tipped the contents of the vial down his throat. Jared coughed wretchedly and spit up half of it in a burble of blood, but managed to swallow enough of a mouthful for it to take. Jensen let his hand shift up to cradle Jared's cheek while Jared's body began the painful task of putting itself back together, his thumb rubbing lightly over chalky-white skin.

It took an eternity of watching Jared's body seize and shudder, but eventually Jared's laboured breathing smoothed out, the gaping holes in his chest knitting shut beneath the ruined mess of blood and fabric. They weren't anywhere near healed, Jensen knew, but they'd hold together long enough for Jared to fix them himself. They'd just make camp for a few days while Jared got his strength back.

Jared's eyelashes fluttered and Jensen wasn't surprised when he couldn't open them more than halfway; almost dying took a lot out of a person.

"Je-?" Jared managed, wide-blown pupils wobbling towards Jensen's face.

Jensen resisted both the urge to snatch his hand away before Jared realized where it was and the desire to curl his fingers tight in Jared's hair and never let go. He drew back slowly instead, hand leaving Jared's face as lightly as it had come. 

"Jackass," he said gently. "Didn't I tell you to stop trying to die on me?"

Jared blinked up at him, his teeth slicked red in a grotesque parody of his usual smile. "S-srrr-" he tried, and Jensen pressed a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Stop it before you _actually_ kill yourself this time. They'll be plenty of time for talking when you're not at death's door." He glanced over at Shilya, who was watching with an enigmatic cat stare that seemed strangely thoughtful. "I'm going to get rid of the bodies," he told her, feeling only slightly stupid for doing it. "Can you watch this idiot while I'm gone?"

Shilya considered him for a moment, then gave a tidy little meow that somehow managed to convey 'of course, you cretin' and 'be quick about it' and 'thank you' all at the same time.

"I'm starting to understand cat-speak," Jensen said, with a shake of his head. "You're both such a bad influence on me."

He got up before Shilya could hiss at him for that, collected his bow and went to harvest as many arrows as he could from the mess they'd just made. Once the still-usable ones had been cleaned and slotted back into his quiver, he grabbed the closest wolf by the hind legs and started hauling it further out into the woods.

He glanced over just once before he lost line of sight, paranoia riding high in the wake of fading adrenaline. Jared was lying right where he'd left him, chest rising in a shallow but thankfully steady rhythm. Shilya was curled into the crook of Jared's neck and shoulder and Jensen could see her ears prick forward and back as she peered around the small clearing, on alert for the slightest hint of danger.

"Good girl," Jensen said, more to himself than anything. It was nice to know he had someone else watching Jared's back, even if it _was_ a cat. Jared was enough of an idiot to need all the help he could get.

\---

It was four days before Jared was well enough to travel without keeling over, and another week after that before they reached the T'chkta Plains.

"Thank fuck," Jensen said, tipping his head back to feel the sun on his face. "I am _so_ damn sick of trees." 

Jared was quiet and Jensen glanced over to find Jared watching him with a strange little smile on his face.

"What?" Jensen asked.

"Nothing," Jared said, because he was officially the worst liar in the world. "Where to next? Ratan? Gornik? Clom?"

"Mrow," said Shilya, with a disdainful little sniff, because she was a frigging princess like that. 

"Since when is that my decision?" Jensen asked, because it was the safer topic by far.

Jared's grin turned cheeky. "Since I said so." 

Jensen rolled his eyes. "Oh, well in _that_ case..."

Shilya meowed again, somehow contriving to sound even more indignant.

"What?" Jensen demanded of her and summarily refused to be embarrassed about talking to a cat. Obviously, Jared was rubbing off on him in all the wrong ways. 

Pun intended.

"Mrrr," she said, as though this was in any way more helpful. 

"You cat’s a menace," Jensen said, looking up to find Jared watching him _again_. "Seriously, Jared, what is it?"

"…nothing," Jared said again and Jensen could have just throttled him. "Just… thanks for watching out for me back there."

"S'fine," Jensen said, feeling awkward. "I just didn’t want to have to train up a new partner."

Jared smiled, something soft and fond in his expression that made Jensen's insides twist. "Well, I appreciate your being selfish enough to save my life. So," Jared said then, with enough false cheer to make Jensen cringe. "Are we going to Clom, or what?"

Jensen swallowed down the words bubbling up in his throat and mustered up most of a long-suffering tone instead. "Nobody ever wants to go to Clom, Jared. But we're about three days from Gornik and we should be able to find a decent buyer there."

"Whatever you say," Jared said, and there was something heavy in the words as he added, "You're the master guide in all this."

"Damn straight," Jensen managed, and started forward.

Only to trip right over Shilya as she rocketed past his legs like a pack of furies were on her tail. Jensen stumbled hard and fetched up hard against a wall of no-longer white fabric when Jared stepped immediately forward to catch him.

"Y'alright?" Jared asked and Jensen could feel the rumble of the words under the press of his hands against Jared's chest.

"Your fucking cat," Jensen tried to say, but he was stupid enough to look up and find Jared's face right there, inches away from his own and wearing a wistful longing that Jensen had been convincing himself he was imagining for the last year and more.

Jensen's attempt to keep things normal clattered off and left uncertain silence in its wake. 

"Jensen?" Jared said, hardly more than a puff of air against Jensen's cheek.

"I, uh," Jensen managed, and completely failed at resisting the urge to lean into Jared's warmth. 

Jared exhaled a shaky breath. "Sorry," he said, not moving. "You should probably-"

And Jensen was fucking sick of being an idiot. "Yeah, no," he said, and kissed him.

Jared sucked in a quiet, amazed breath and then he was kissing back: tender, almost chaste and gentle enough to make Jensen shudder.

It was over far too soon for Jensen's liking and, when he opened his eyes, he found Jared smiling at him like he was trying to outshine the sun.

"Took you long enough," Jared said and Jensen recovered enough of his mental faculties to give him a swat on the chest.

"Like that's all on me, jackass. You-"

"Mrrr!" Shilya growled and Jensen swore when she raked her claws down his leg and left sharp-hot pain trailing in her wake.

"Fucking-!" Jensen pushed Jared away and bent down to take a look, shooing Shilya off before she did him any more damage. Blood welled up against the fabric of his trousers in thin, jagged lines and Jensen swore again. He'd have to sew a patch over that.

He turned his scowl on Jared. " _Now_ do you believe she hates me?"

"She doesn't hate you," Jared said, for what had to be the sixth thousandth time, and Jensen threw up his hands in disgust. 

"I can't believe you still do-"

"It's true! She just... doesn't like it when don't treat me like a good mate."

Jensen blinked. "Excuse me?"

Jared shrugged, looking incredibly sheepish. "She, ah, was unhappy because she thought you thought you were too good for me?"

Jensen blinked at him again. "Any time you want to start making sense would be great."

"She knows how I'm feeling, okay? And when you didn't like me back, she figured that meant you weren't interested because you thought I wasn't good enough for you." The tips of Jared's ears went pink and he muttered, "It's some kind of cat thing, I don't know."

Jensen felt like he'd wandered straight into a confusion spell. "Your cat thinks I didn't jump your bones because I decided I was out of your league?"

"Sort of?" Jared said, somehow contriving to look even more sheepish. "And then a couple months ago she decided that you were just oblivious, but that irritated her just as much. So."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jensen demanded and Jared snorted in disbelief.

"And say what? Hi Jensen, I'm pathetically in love with you and my familiar thinks you're as thick as a stack of bricks - want to get married?"

Jensen raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Jared flushed bright red. "Her words, not mine."

"Not that," Jensen said, partly because this was so not the time to be addressing Shilya's apparently excellent command of the English language. "You're in love with me?"

"Well, yeah," Jared said, as though it really was that simple. Maybe for Jared it was. "I'm hoping that the kissing means you don't mind too much."

"I think I can handle it," Jensen said. He hesitated for a fraction of a second, before forging on. "Since I'm in pretty much the same boat, and all."

Jared's smile returned in full force, dimples carving deeply into his cheeks. "Yeah?" he asked and Jensen just had to kiss him again.

"Yeah."

The butt of Shilya's head against his leg startled Jensen into looking down. 

She blinked up at him with innocent eyes. "Prrt?" she asked.

"You don't fool me, missy," Jensen told her, without releasing his hold on Jared's shirt. "We're going to have words later."

Jared laughed. "You know, I'm starting to think you like my familiar."

"I hate you both," Jensen said automatically and didn't even think of retreating when Jared snaked an arm around his waist and reeled him in, being careful not to disturb his bow.

"You know something?" Jared said, whispering the words straight in Jensen's ear. "I think I'm okay with that."

And really? Jensen was too. 

Even if Jared's cat still kind of hated him.

~fin

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [With a Talent Like Yours [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5067964) by [oddishly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oddishly/pseuds/oddishly)




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